The departure point of the project is to dissolve the required large indoor masses of the pools in the landscape, especially during approach to the hilltop where the building complex will be located. Instead of standing out with its form on the hill, the design establishes a simple silhouette with fragmented masses and proposes a low-rise built environment.
REACHING THE TOP
A climbing access to the hill where the building will be located and attempting to dissolve the large masses of the covered pools into the landscape are the starting points of the design. The architectural language seeks to establish strong relationships with its site. The design that proposes a fragmented and simple silhouette rather than a standing-out form, aims to melt into the landscape and become a low-rise as close to the ground as possible. The basic architectural elements simply define the volumes and relate to the surroundings on horizontal and vertical planes. The eaves extend beyond the volumes they cover, organizing new relationships on the exterior, controlling natural light. The walls become extensions of the landscape. The designed masses and open spaces melt into the landscape.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE TERRAIN
Program components consist of large volumes, but the inventory of the landscape needs to be protected on the constantly sloping terrain, a problematic constraint for the interconnected solution of the program units. The covered swimming pools, which require high volumes and include large seating areas, are designed in a fragmented setup, instead of being solved together. The fragmentation increases opportunities of potential to form relationships with the site. Layout decisions consider this demanding variable slopes of the land, the prevailing wind, the movement of the sun, the existing landscape inventory and the building program altogether. When these inputs were considered together with new functional scenarios of the pools and the user profiles, it was ensured that units close to the human scale were collected on lower levels and the larger volumes on upper levels.
OLYMPIC AND PUBLIC POOLS
There are two main groups: Olympic and water polo swimming pools and public swimming pools. The first group serves as water polo spaces, the Olympic spaces for sporting purposes where tournaments will be held, and where courses will be organized. The second group consists of an indoor public pool, an outdoor pool and surrounding entertainment units which will be used mainly for recreational purposes. Water polo and Olympic pool spectator entrances, which can work separately and together when necessary, were situated on the hill (level +20.00). Entrance halls of both pools open to the welcoming square, which acts as the gathering area for spectators upon arrival to the facility. Athletes can also access the changing facilities of the water polo and Olympic pools at this level.
ATHLETE AND SPECTATOR ACCESS TO POOLS
Entrance hallways are designed to allow pools to be used together or separately when needed. Access to the athlete areas and locker rooms is under control, while access for non-athletes is restricted. Locker rooms for both pools are connected from the rear of the lobby. This allows the two pools to be used together by athletes to warm-up and to train prior to competition or similar events. The flexibility of the pools to operate independently is very important in terms of the building’s operating costs. The tribune walls are as transparent as possible. This creates a visual continuity between the indoor and outdoor spaces, providing the desired relationship with the outdoor space at the same level.
The indoor public pool has been located at a lower level (+5.00), serving the access of users from the city. Both the indoor public pool and the spa open to the outdoor areas, are defined by the green texture and natural topography, allowing users to integrate with nature. The indoor public pool has been designed in a free form in accordance with the architectural language, with resting and service areas between the niches.
The outdoor pool is accessed from the middle of the lower and upper levels of the allée. With the terracing of the topography towards lower levels, activity terraces around the pool are designed at appropriate levels. With these terraces flowing into each other, niche areas were created for users during intensive use and the mass user effect was broken. Depending on the type of activities, quiet areas created for users who want silence when necessary are distributed throughout the site. The water games pool is located on the lower levels, taking advantage of natural elevations. While the outdoor pool and leisure pools are organised in such a way that they are related to each other, they are also separate, in such a way that they can provide service with sub-areas of different character.
MAIN ELEMENT OF CIRCULATION: ALLÉE
The pedestrian allée is an element that both unites the programme and provides access to the upper level. The alley starts from the lower level of the land and organises access to the indoor-outdoor units, which can also work independently, located on different levels of the land. Allée is the main access spine onto which the entrances of these units open. There are ramps along the pedestrian alley for disabled access. With a public transport stop to be created at the lower level of the land, public access to the area and the academy’s connection with the city will be strengthened.
OPEN FIELD SPORTS
The land is basically divided into three zones with the pedestrian allée providing access to the hill and the pedestrian pathway cutting it. The pedestrian path, which is designed on the southwest-northeast axis, connects open space activities while accessing the entrance area created on the southwest periphery of the land and the open car park arranged after it. On the upper part of the pedestrian path, there are areas mostly organised for sports activities (basketball, volleyball, boccia, etc.); and on the lower part, there are outdoor pools and entertainment units. The outdoor pools are placed on the site in a way that they utilize maximum use of daylight, at the same time creating sunbathing areas protected from the north winds. The sun is utilised to maximum extent from sunrise to the sunset.
TECTONIC EXPRESSIONS
Considering its vulnerable stance towards corrosion, the roofs were solved with post-tensioned reinforced concrete system instead of steel systems. With post-tensioning systems, long distances can be spanned with shallow beam depths in pool eaves that do not carry a moving load. Canopies, which control daylight and define the outdoor spaces, extend in the form of cantilevers at extent of indoor boundaries, helping with seamless silhouette effects. These brackets are designed to compensate for the possible deflection of beams passing wide spans. Roof of the Olympic pool which has the widest span, is also spanned with a post-tensioned beams of 1.5 metre depths. Rhythmic skylights formed on the roof surface are organised to receive north light in all indoor pools. This way, the interior surfaces of swimming pools do not get direct sunlight, and the definition of the indoor volume benefits more in terms of spatial quality.
